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The return of 70 mm

Recently I was looking at some aerial shots of downtown Reading dating to the early 1960s with Reading Eagle Photo Editor Bill Uhrich.

One cavernous structure caught my eye.

As I got my bearings on the street grid, I realized it was the Embassy Theater.

That opulent movie house may have been the most luxurious in the county.

And in my recollection, it was 70 mm capable.

I’m no expert on local film history, but I don’t believe any other city theaters had that capability, although it’s possible the Loew’s Colonial did. The Astor, I’m fairly certain, was strictly 35 mm. Please correct me if I’m wrong on any of this.

But the Fox North, in Muhlenberg Township, built later on, in the early ’60s, as America’s exodus to suburbia gained steam, definitely was a 70 mm movie house, where I saw “Star Wars,” “Chinatown,” “Fall of the Roman Empire” and such.

So was the Eric, across Fifth Street Highway, until its disastrous twinning, straight down the center, which created two absurdly deep teeny-screen auditoriums. Previous to that I remember seeing Richard Lester’s “Juggernaut” there and being awestruck.

These musings are prompted by the news that Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” is having limited 70 mm screenings at a few theaters throughout the U.S. and globally.

In Pennsylvania, two theaters, the UA King of Prussia Stadium 16 & Imax, King of Prussia, and the Tuttleman Imax in the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, have been outfitted with the projection equipment.

I’ll note that the Imax theater in downtown Reading does not have 70 mm film projection. Nor is it near the scale of the vintage screens I mentioned above.

Nolan continues to be a prominent advocate for film as the medium of choice, as opposed to digital. I’m not his biggest fan, but support him all the way in this. There’s just no comparison, in my view, between the two.

So I urge anyone with any love for this medium to check the film out in 70 mm. Limited time only! These don’t come around very often; the last time, I believe, anyone shot and projected in 70 was Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight.”